Image & Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Team-Up For Anti-Censorship Variants In September

The Press Release:
This September, Image Comics fights censorship with a powerful line of variant covers to benefit Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), the industry’s voice for free speech advocacy and education. All proceeds from this dynamic campaign will support CBLDF’s important legal work on behalf of comics creators, retailers, educators and readers.

“Comics have been uniquely affected by censorship since the very beginning,” said Seeley. “I wanted to do something with my fellow Image creators to call attention to the problem, and to raise money for CBLDF to help their efforts to fight back. They own the Comics Code Seal of Approval, the censorship stamp that used to govern almost all comics until that organization died in 2011. We thought we’d bring back the Code for one month, to show how ham-fisted those censorship attempts were while having some fun making money for the CBLDF’s important work.”
Eric Stephenson, Publisher at Image Comics, added: “Freedom of expression is a core value at Image Comics. Image has been a proud corporate member of the Fund for more than a decade. Their work ensures that the comics we make can reach their audiences through retailers, libraries, and online without local authorities interfering. CBLDF is constantly fighting book bans, helping creators and librarians behind the scenes in big and small ways, as well as keeping an eye out to challenge unconstitutional laws that would affect free expression. We’re grateful for their work and proud to support it.”

For more than thirty years, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has protected the First Amendment rights of comics field and developed powerful education efforts in the service of the community. CBLDF has defended a wide range of cases in 2018, most recently a challenge to the graphic novel Fun Home in New Jersey. The organization also produced important resources, notably Be Heard!, a comic book for students to help them understand their protest rights. To learn more about the CBLDF, please visit www.cbldf.org, or read their Summer Update.

PiercingMetal Thoughts: As I’ve noted on numerous variant edition broadcasts, I am not really the consumer for the wide variety of variant covers that get offered up by these fine companies. It’s mostly a budgeting issue than a disinterest and believe me I know several friends who buy ALL the variants. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me. What about you readers? Are you following any of these titles? Will you be adding any of these variants to your collection? If you don’t plan on this, I encourage you to still look into the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund since they are out to do good things for the medium and that is very necessary in these times. I’ll close up now and say that I hope Image shares the Uncensored images which I will post to a brand new narrative for this particular case.